I have a new laptop with Windows 8 which i've heard has quite a few issues running the Sims 3. Recently my game minimizes itself about 15 minutes into gamplay, it will do this twice and on the third time the game will crash to the desktop and I will get an error message saying "Sims 3 has stopped working and Windows is searching for a solution". The game is updated to 1.67. I've tried running as an administrator which allowed me to play for almost an hour but that may be coincidence. I have also changed DEP settings, I uninstalled all CC, I have no mods. I have my dxdiag report as well, i'm not sure how much info is needed from the diagnostic so let me know if there is anything missing. The game seemed to be fine in January but I didn't play much due to my schoolwork. The way it keeps minimizing to the desktop first makes me think there is a background program I can't find that is interfering with the sims. Thank you so much for the help!
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 2/23/2014, 14:13:40
Machine name: ARIELPC
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit (6.3, Build 9600) (9600.winblue_gdr.131030-1505)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Inspiron 3537
BIOS: A05
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4200U CPU @ 1.60GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
Memory: 6144MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6024MB RAM
Page File: 3397MB used, 14087MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.03.9600.16384 64bit Unicode
------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Type: Full Device
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0A16&SUBSYS_05E91028&REV_09
Display Memory: 1792 MB
Dedicated Memory: 32 MB
Shared Memory: 1760 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: unknown
Monitor Id: LGD03AB
Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (60.044Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Driver Name: igdumdim64.dll,igd10iumd64.dll,igd10iumd64.dll,igdumdim32,igd10iumd32,igd10iumd32
Driver File Version: 10.18.0010.3379 (English)
Driver Version: 10.18.10.3379
DDI Version: 11.1
Feature Levels: 11.1,11.0,10.1,10.0,9.3,9.2,9.1
Driver Model: WDDM 1.3
Graphics Preemption: DMA
Compute Preemption: Thread
Miracast: Not Supported by WiFi driver
Hybrid Graphics GPU: Integrated
Power P-states: Not Supported
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 12/21/2013 00:02:46, 10591744 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes

The problem isn't Windows 8, but the laptop - it doesn't have a graphics card, and Sims 3 requires a graphics good (and a good one at that). I'm afraid it's unlikely that you'll be able to play TS3 on that laptop.

The problem is the game was working fine before, it is just recently the game started crashing. I have seen that some laptops have 2 graphics cards to switch between and you have to designate Nvidea as the one you want TS3 to use. Could that be the problem on this computer, sorry i'm not great with computers but I had a much cheaper computer with less RAM and memory space and it ran TS3 slowly but atleast it ran the game. Thank you again for all your help.

Maybe i'm not understanding the things that TS3 requires but I have played many other games including the Elder Scrolls Games on this laptop without incident and I would think Skyrim would require more of the computer than sims would.

Also last thing, the laptop has an Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4400 card, I know it isn't great but it should be enough to run the game on low graphics which it does for 15 minutes to an hour before crashing.

Intel 4400 isn't a graphics card, it's an onboard graphics chip - i.e. the bare minimum that's needed to get the screen working.

Yes - some laptops do have an onboard chip and a graphics card, and you can switch between them. I looked up your laptop model and I didn't see anything that suggested it has that feature. If you want to check, I suggest you take a look at the box or manual, or go back to wherever you bought it from and check the details.

The problem with playing TS3 on weak hardware is to do with heat - making a computer do "heavy" work like playing TS3 heats it up, and over time the heat wears out the components until they stop working. So it's very common to be able to play for a while, and then over time to find you get blurriness, glitches, crashing etc., and then eventually have the computer just stop working entirely. How fast that happens is very variable - it can take years or months or even weeks - but it definitely sounds like that's what has happened to you, and unluckily, it's happened faster on this laptop than it did on your last one.

You might also be surprised at how hardcore a game TS3 is: although something like Skyrim is way prettier, TS3 runs an entire town full of sims all the time, and it creates textures for everything on the fly instead of reading them off the disk - so although it looks much less impressive, there's a lot more going on under the hood than is the case for most games. Plus, TS3 is really badly coded, and that makes it all very inefficient compared to a game like Skyrim.

Alright, thank you so much for your help. I'm just going to move back to playing the game on the other laptop, TS3 has been nothing but trouble since I bought it.